July 2018 Newsletter Edition
The month of July has been interesting. I've been maxed out in what I am able to achieve. I am making progress with my goals. I am pleased with what I've achieved.
I've tried something new this month. The community health center near my home is offering a course for people who live with chronic conditions. To date I've been figuring things out while going about my life. I've had conversations with individuals who suffer physical disabilities while riding the para transit vehicle. I haven't had regular weekly contact with someone living this out. I'm really glad I signed up for this. Only two sessions remain for August. I am a bit disappointed in this. I've really appreciated the discussion this group has promoted. I don't find myself explaining the effects of chronic pain on my life. These are some of the normal conversations I've had in some time. This has been time well spent.
I took the next few steps towards my self employment aspiration. I've made two of the major purchases needed. The first has been purchasing nine single board computers. These will become the group of servers that support the vision for self employment. I host the web site through my home Internet connection that goes with my vision for self employment. The computer programs that run the web site will be on these computers. These computers will also power the online store. I technically didn't need to buy 9 right now. I am setting up what I anticipate needing for 5 years. Once I get working on this and I've got through my "to do" list I want to remain focused on growth. I don't want to be focused on adding more computer commands. It is going to take me a bit of effort to setup these computers. I've made connections which may help with this task. Although it is going to challenge me this is something I should enjoy doing.
I've also purchased one of the tools I anticipate needing for the online store I plan to setup. This is a paper creaser for making cards. I really enjoy encouraging people. Selling cards to help raise money is a natural extension of this. I will see how this goes. During July I had another financial planning meeting related to my inheritance. I wanted to send a 'thank you' card to a specialized financial planner who joined the meeting I was having to answer specific questions I had. I thought I could use the paper creaser to make this card and start to figure out the ins and outs of how to crease greeting cards using this and the placement of the page being creased.
The month ended with another special moment with a youth. He was feeling a lot of stress from not having groceries. In reality his monthly benefit from the Province of Ontario to keep him housed and fed would be available within a day or two. I've know this particular youth for two years now. Although he has a few courses to complete in order to graduate from high school he has also begun transitioning into his adult life. I spontaneously decided to buy him groceries to last a few days and surprise him. This was really special. He was completely not expecting this. He really appreciated this.
I don't regret how I've used my time this month. I have lots to complete. I am starting to really look forward to when I am able to spend my time with my self employment goals. Besides the practical component of investing my life in others I would really like to break the cycle of poverty my physical disability has brought to my life. The risks of further treatment are just not worth it. I don't want to open a "can of worms" and not be able to pursue my self employment aspiration. It would very quickly get too hard for me to do this.